deals & deployments

O2 and its Manx Telecom subsidiary announced last month that they are using Lucent Technologies gear to launch Europe's first commercial HSDPA service this month on the Isle of Man. The companies had been working on an earlier trial.

Austrian mobile operator tele.ring has licensed Andrew Corp.'s Optum automated cell planning tool to provide its rapidly increasing subscriber base with better coverage and quality of service from its GSM and UMTS networks across Austria.

Cingular Wireless also is using Lucent for its HSDPA launch, which is planned for next year. The U.S. carrier also is embarking on a multi-year project to implement an IP multimedia subsystem architecture in its network.

Vanu, an innovator of gear based on software-defined radio, said that it has successfully deployed its Anywave GSM/GPRS base station with the Idaho National Laboratory in southeastern Idaho. The lab's Next-Generation Wireless Test Bed will use the system for interoperability testing and evaluating other specialized applications, such as disaster recovery operations.

T-Mobile launched commercial broadband wireless service in Prague, Czech Republic, last month using UMTS TD-CDMA technology from IPWireless.

GoRemote teamed with VoIP juggernaut Skype to launch a wireless VoIP service for remote workers. The solution allows free Skype phone calls to anyone with an Internet connection using GoRemote's secure mobile broadband solutions: GoRemote Mobile Office and GoRemote Teleworker.